How OpenAI’s Web Scraper Overwhelmed a Small Business Site Like a DDoS Attack
The Unexpected Server Crash
When Triplegangers CEO Oleksandr Tomchuk received alerts about his e-commerce site crashing on Saturday, he initially suspected a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The reality proved more surprising: OpenAI’s GPTBot was systematically scraping his entire website at an overwhelming scale.
“We host over 65,000 products, each with dedicated pages containing multiple images,” Tomchuk explained. The AI crawler was making tens of thousands of server requests, attempting to download hundreds of thousands of images and their detailed descriptions.
The Scale of the Scraping Operation
Key findings from the incident:
- OpenAI utilized at least 600 distinct IP addresses for data scraping
- The bot traffic effectively functioned as a DDoS attack, crippling site performance
- Server logs revealed relentless scraping activity throughout the previous week
For Triplegangers—a seven-person company specializing in 3D human “digital doubles”—this represented a critical business disruption. Their Tampa-based (with Ukrainian operations) company maintains what they describe as the web’s most extensive collection of 3D-scanned human models, serving game developers and digital artists.
The Robot.txt Loophole
While Triplegangers’ terms of service prohibit unauthorized scraping, enforcement requires proper robot.txt configuration with OpenAI-specific tags. As OpenAI’s documentation states, their crawlers (including GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, and OAI-SearchBot) honor these directives—with a 24-hour delay for updates.
Critical considerations:
- Robot.txt operates as an opt-out rather than opt-in system
- Compliance remains voluntary among AI companies
- Recent cases (like Perplexity’s scraping controversy) demonstrate inconsistent adherence
Lasting Impacts and Unanswered Questions
After implementing proper robot.txt configurations and Cloudflare bot-blocking measures by Wednesday, Triplegangers stabilized their site. However, significant concerns remain:
- Data Privacy Risks: As Tomchuk notes, “We scan actual people”—raising GDPR compliance questions about AI companies using such images without consent.
- Financial Consequences: The scraping incident generated unexpected AWS costs from excessive CPU and bandwidth usage.
- Transparency Gaps: No mechanism exists for businesses to verify what data was scraped or request its removal.
- Delayed Protections: OpenAI has yet to release its promised opt-out tool, as TechCrunch recently reported.
A Growing Industry-Wide Problem
Triplegangers’ experience reflects a broader trend:
- Business Insider documented similar cases of AI bots crashing sites and inflating cloud costs
- DoubleVerify research shows an 86% increase in invalid traffic from AI scrapers in 2024
- The site’s detailed image tags (ethnicity, age, body type) make it particularly valuable for AI training
“Most sites remain clueless they’re being scraped,” Tomchuk warns. “We only noticed because of the aggressive traffic volume.”
Proactive Measures for Website Owners
Tomchuk advises businesses to:
- Regularly monitor server logs for suspicious bot activity
- Implement comprehensive robot.txt configurations
- Consider specialized bot-blocking services
- Stay informed about emerging AI scraping tools
“The current model puts all responsibility on website owners,” he notes. “These companies should seek permission, not assume access.”
Triplegangers’ product pages contain multiple detailed images—prime targets for AI training data.
Server logs revealed OpenAI’s bot accessing the site from hundreds of IP addresses simultaneously.
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